First Grandchild for Duggar Family

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If anyone thought the Duggar clan handling eighteen children was challenging, what’s another generation? For the stars of TLC’s 18 Kids and Counting, a grandchild is just another blessing from God. The eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, Joshua, and his wife Anna have officially begun a new family of Duggars. With the aid of a midwife, they welcomed daughter Mackynzie Renee on Oct. 8 at their Springdale, Arkansas home.

As for expectations of a mass Duggar family of his own, Josh says: “We’d be happy with two or three. I think that children are a blessing though, and when you raise them right, they’re a great blessing.” But Josh says an inevitably large family would not give him any anxiety: “I would welcome a big family. My parents have been wonderful examples.”

Being the fifth out of eight children, Anna agrees. Married to Josh last fall, she has no qualms about raising an expanding brood, “Growing up in a large family and Joshua in a mega-family, you learn so much more. I think a large family helps you prepare for life.” Although many people would see an extensively big family as bizarre and unnatural, it has helped Josh to grow closer in his faith to God while maintaining the same beliefs that his parents passed down to him.

While Josh’s parents did not initially intend for an enormous, ever-budding brood, a miscarriage gave them renewed belief that they should not meddle in God’s plan for the amount of children he wanted them to have. Now, with eighteen children and one on the way, Jim Bob Duggar says: “We wouldn’t have it any other way.”

With a grandchild and another little Duggar expected for Jim Bob and Michelle, it only seems to be the beginning of a very long line of Duggars.

Editor’s note: Do you have an opinion? Email ChargerBulletin@newhaven.edu